Sydney-based international sales and distribution agency Surprise H has unveiled its first slate of features, including Wregas Bhanuteja’s Sundance competition title Levitating, Daniel Ribeiro’s I Am Going To Miss You and Sunhee Na’s Los Angeles-set LArirang.
The company was founded last July by former Memento Films International and LevelK sales executive Derek Lui, who will be in Cannes to introduce his inaugural slate to international buyers.
Levitating marks the third feature of Indonesian filmmaker Wregas and premiered in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at Sundance in January. The film stars Angga Yunanda as a young man who aspires to be the shaman of a trance party. The Indonesia-Singapore-France-Taiwan collaboration is produced by Siera Tamihardja, Iman Usman and Amalia Rusdi.
Brazilian drama I Am Going To Miss You had its world premiere at BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival in March and follows a transgender couple navigating love, ambition and change. Director Ribeiro’s previous feature, The Way He Looks, won the Teddy Award and Fipresci prize at the Berlinale in 2014.
LArirang is a Korean-language ensemble drama that follows an immigrant family in Los Angeles over Lunar New Year. It was released in South Korea in October and is produced by Dong Heon Han
“What connects these films is a sense of emotional clarity and perspective,” said Lui. “They each carry something specific in voice or experience, but also something universal. That balance is very much at the heart of what we are building with Surprise H.”
Lui began his career as a film programming manager at UA Cinemas in Hong Kong in 2012 before joining Denmark-based sales agent LevelK from 2015-18. He spent nearly two years as director of sales for Asia and ANZ at Memento Films International (now Paradise City Sales) and a further two years as senior vice president of operations at Australia’s Odin’s Eye Entertainment from 2023-24. Lui was named a Screen International Future Leader in 2017.
“Surprise H comes from the idea that some of the most powerful films are not always the loudest, but the ones that stay with you,” added Lui. “In a market that is becoming increasingly challenging and fast moving, we are interested in helping those films cut through, whether they move you, challenge you or catch you off guard in an unexpected way. It is about finding the right connection between the film, the audience and the moment.”
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